shalt have; thy ease, and rest, and pleasure is to come. Here you have
because you have not been miserable. Nothing, saith another
[Demetrius], seems more unhappy to me, than he to whom no
adversity hath happened. God afflicts thee, O Christian, in love; and
therefore Luther cries out, Strike, Lord; strike, Lord, and spare not.
Who can seriously muse upon this, and not hold his peace, and not
be silent under the most smarting rod?
(2.) Secondly, Consider, that the trials and troubles, the calamities
and miseries, the crosses and losses that you meet with in this world,
is all the hell that ever you shall have. Here you have your hell;
hereafter you shall have your heaven. This is the worst of your
condition, the best is to come. Lazarus had his hell first, his heaven
last; but Dives had his heaven first, and his hell at last, Luke 16:24–
31. Thou hast all thy pangs, and pains, and throes here that ever thou
shalt have; thy ease, and rest, and pleasure is to come. Here you have
all your bitter, your sweet is to come; here you have your sorrows,
your joys are to come; here you have all your winter nights, your
summer days are to come; here you have your passion-week, your
ascension-day is to come; here you have your evil things, your good
things are to come. Death will put a period to all thy sins, and to all
thy sufferings; and it will be an inlet to those joys, delights, and
contents that shall never have end; and therefore hold thy peace, and
be silent before the Lord.
(3.) Thirdly, Get an assurance that Christ is yours, and pardon of sin
yours, and divine favour yours, and heaven yours; and, the sense of
this will exceedingly quiet and silence the soul under the sorest and
sharpest trials a Christian can meet with in this world. He that is
assured that God is his portion, will never mutter nor murmur under
his greatest burden; he that can groundedly say, 'Nothing shall
separate me from the love of God in Christ,' he will be able to
triumph in the midst of the greatest tribulations, Rom. 8:33–39; he
that with the spouse can say, 'My beloved is mine, and I am his,'
Cant. 2:16, will bear up quietly and sweetly under the heaviest
afflictions. In the time of the Marian persecution there was a
gracious woman, who being convened before bloody Bonner, then
bishop of London, upon the trial of religion, he threatened her that
he would take away her husband from her. Saith she, Christ is my
husband. I will take away thy child. Christ, saith she, is better to me
than ten sons. I will strip thee, saith he, of all thy outward comforts.
Yea, but Christ is mine, saith she, and you cannot strip me of him.
Oh! the assurance that Christ was hers bore up her heart, and
quieted her spirit under all. You may take away my life, saith Basil,
but you cannot take away my comfort; my head, but not my crown.
Yea, quoth he, had I a thousand lives, I would lay them all down for
my Saviour's sake, who hath done abundantly more for me. John
Ardley professed to Bonner, when he told him of burning, and how ill
he could endure it, that if he had as many lives as he had hairs on his
head, he would lose them all in the fire before he would lose his
Christ. Assurance will keep a man from muttering and murmuring
under the sorest afflictions. Henry and John, two Augustine monks,
being the first that were burnt in Germany, and Mr Rogers, the first
that was burnt in Queen Mary's days, did all sing in the flame. A soul
that lives in the assurance of divine favour, and in its title to glory,
cannot but bear up patiently and quietly under the greatest
sufferings that possibly can befall it in this world. That scripture is
worth its weight in gold, 'The inhabitants of Sion shall not say, I am
sick; the people that dwell therein shall be forgiven their iniquity,'
Isa. 33:24. He doth not say they were not sick. No. But though they
were sick, yet they should not say they were sick. But why should
they forget their sorrows, and not remember their pains, nor be
sensible of their sickness? Why! the reason is, because the Lord had
forgiven them their iniquities. The sense of pardon took away the
sense of pain; the sense of forgiveness took away the sense of
sickness. Assurance of pardon will take away the pain, the sting, the
trouble of every trouble and affliction that a Christian meets with. No
affliction will daunt, startle, or stagger an assured Christian. An
assured Christian will be patient and silent under all, Ps. 23:1, 4–7.
Melancthon makes mention of a godly woman, who, having upon her
deathbed been in much conflict, and afterward much comforted,
brake out into these words: Now, and not till now, I understand the
meaning of these words, 'Thy sins are forgiven;' the sense of which
did mightily cheer and quiet her. He that hath got this jewel of
assurance in his bosom, will be far enough off from vexing or fretting
under the saddest dispensations that he meets with in this world.
(4.) Fourthly, If you would be quiet and silent under your present
troubles and trials, then dwell much upon the benefit, the profit, the
advantage that hath redounded to your souls by former troubles and
afflictions that have been upon you. Eccles. 7:14, 'In the day of
adversity consider.' Oh! now consider, how by former afflictions the
Lord hath discovered sin, prevented sin, and mortified sin: consider
how the Lord by former afflictions hath discovered to thee the
impotency, the mutability, the insufficiency, and the vanity of the
world, and all worldly concernments: consider how the Lord by
former afflictions hath melted thy heart, and broken thy heart, and
humbled thy heart, and prepared thy heart for clearer, fuller, and
sweeter enjoyments of himself: consider what pity, what compassion,
what bowels, what tenderness, and what sweetness former afflictions
have wrought in thee towards others in misery: consider what room
former afflictions have made in thy soul for God, for his word, for
good counsel, and for divine comfort: consider how by former
afflictions the Lord hath made thee more partaker of his Christ, his
Spirit, his holiness, his goodness, &c.: consider how by former
afflictions the Lord hath made thee to look towards heaven more, to
mind heaven more, to prize heaven more, and to long for heaven
more, &c. Now, who can seriously consider of all that good that he
hath got by former afflictions, and not be silent under present
afflictions? Who can remember those choice, those great, and those
precious earnings that his soul hath made of former afflictions, and
not reason himself into a holy silence under present afflictions thus:
O my soul! hath not God done thee much good, great good, special
good, by former afflictions? Yes. O my soul! hath not God done that
for thee by former afflictions, that thou wouldst not have to do for
ten thousand worlds? Yes. And is not God, O my soul! as powerful as
ever, as faithful as ever, as gracious as ever, and as ready and willing
as ever to do thee good by present afflictions, as he hath been to do
thee good by former afflictions? Yes, yes. Why, why then dost thou
not sit silent and mute before him under thy present troubles? O my
soul! It was the saying of one, that an excellent memory was needful
for three sorts of men: First, for tradesmen; for they, having many
businesses to do, many reckonings to make up, many irons in the
fire, had need of a good memory. Secondly, great talkers; for they,
being full of words, had need to have a good storehouse in their
heads to feed their tongues. Thirdly, for liars; for they telling many
untruths, had need of a good memory, lest they should be taken in
their lying contradictions: and I may add for a fourth, viz., those that
are afflicted, that they may remember the great good that they have
gained by former afflictions, that so they may be the more silent and
quiet under present troubles.
(5.) Fifthly, To quiet and silence your souls under the sorest
afflictions and sharpest trials, consider, that your choicest, your
chiefest treasure is safe; your God is safe, your Christ is safe, your
portion is safe, your crown is safe, your inheritance is safe, your royal
palace is safe, and your jewels, your graces are safe; therefore hold
your peace, 2 Tim. 1:12; 4:8.
I have read a story of a man that had a suit, and when his cause was
to be heard, he applied himself to three friends, to see what they
could do for him: one answered, he would bring him as far on his
journey as he could; the second promised him that he would go with
him to his journey's end; the third engaged himself to go with him
before the judge, and to speak for him, and not to leave him till his
cause was heard and determined. These three are a man's riches, his
friends, and his graces. His riches will help him to comfortable
accommodations while they stay with him, but they often take leave
of a man before his soul takes leave of his body. His friends will go
with him to his grave, and then leave him; but his graces will
accompany him before God, they will not leave him nor forsake him;
they will go to the grave, to glory, with him, 1 Tim. 6:18, 19.
In that famous battle at Leuctrum, where the Thebans got a signal
victory, but their captain, Epaminondas, a little before his death,
demanded whether his buckler were taken by the enemy, and when
he understood that it was safe, and that they had not so much as laid
their hands on it, he died most willingly, cheerfully, and quietly.
Well! Christians, your shield of faith is safe, your portion is safe, your
royal robe is safe, your kingdom is safe, your heaven is safe, your
happiness and blessedness is safe; and therefore under all your
afflictions and troubles, in patience possess your own souls. But,
(6.) Sixthly, If you would be silent and quiet under your sorest
troubles and trials, then set yourselves in good earnest upon the
mortification of your lusts. It is unmortified lust which is the sting of
every trouble, and which makes every sweet bitter, and every bitter
more bitter. Sin unmortified adds weight to every burden, it puts gall
to our wormwood, it adds chain to chain: it makes the bed uneasy,
the chamber a prison, relaxations troublesome, and everything
vexatious to the soul. James 4:1, 'From whence come wars and
fightings amongst you? come they not hence, even of your lusts, that
war in your members?' So say I, from whence comes all this
muttering, murmuring, fretting, and vexing, &c., come they not
hence, even from your unmortified lusts? Come they not from your
unmortified pride, and unmortified self-love, and unmortified
unbelief, and unmortified passion, &c.? Surely they do. Oh,
therefore, as ever you would be silent under the afflicting hand of
God, labour for more and more of the grace of the Spirit, by which
you may mortify the lusts of the flesh, Rom. 8:13. It is not your
strongest resolutions or purposes, without the grace of the Spirit,
that can overmaster a lust. A soul-sore, till it be indeed healed, will
run, though we resolve and say it shall not be. It was the blood of the
sacrifice, and the oil, that cleansed the leper in the law; and that by
them was meant the blood of Christ and the grace of his Spirit, is
agreed on all hands, Lev. 14:14–16. It was a touch of Christ's garment
that cured the woman of her bloody issue, Mark 5:25, et seq.
Philosophy, saith Lactantius, may hide a sin, but it cannot quench it;
it may cover a sin, but it cannot cut off a sin. Like a black patch
instead of a plaster, it may cover some deformities in nature, but it
cures them not; neither is it the papists' purgatories, watchings,
whippings, &c., nor St Francis his kissing or licking of lepers' sores,
which will cleanse the fretting leprosy of sin. In the strength of
Christ, and in the power of the Spirit, set roundly upon the
mortifying of every lust. Oh, hug none, indulge none, but resolvedly
set upon the ruin of all! One leak in a ship will sink it; one wound
strikes Goliah dead as well as three-and-twenty did Cæsar; one
Delilah may do Samson as much spite and mischief as all the
Philistines; one broken wheel spoils all the whole clock; one vein
bleeding will let out all the vitals as well as more; one fly will spoil a
whole box of ointment; one bitter herb all the pottage. By eating one
apple Adam lost paradise, one lick of honey endangered Jonathan's
life, one Achan was a trouble to all Israel, one Jonah raises a storm
and becomes lading too heavy for a whole ship; so one unmortified
lust will be able to raise very strange and strong storms and tempests
in the soul in the days of affliction. And therefore, as you would have
a blessed calm and quietness in your own spirits under your sharpest
trials, set thoroughly upon the work of mortification. Gideon had
seventy sons, and but one bastard, and yet that bastard destroyed all
his seventy sons, Judges 8:30, 31, chap. 9:1, 2. Ah, Christian! dost
thou not know what a world of mischief one unmortified lust may
do? and therefore let nothing satisfy thee but the blood of all thy
lusts.
(7.) Seventhly, If you would be silent under your greatest afflictions,
your sharpest trials, then make this consideration your daily
companion, viz., That all the afflictions that come upon you, come
upon you by and through that covenant of grace that God hath made
with you. In the covenant of grace, God hath engaged himself to keep
you from the evils, snares, and temptations of the world; in the
covenant of grace, God hath engaged himself to purge away your
sins, to brighten and increase your graces, to crucify your hearts to
the world, and to prepare you and preserve you to his heavenly
kingdom; and by afflictions he effects all this, and that according to
his covenant too: Ps. 89:30–34, 'If his children forsake my law, and
walk not in my commandments; if they break my statutes, and keep
not my commandments.' In these words you have a supposition that
the saints may both fall into sins of commission and sins of omission;
in the following words you have God's gracious promise: 'Then will I
visit their transgressions with the rod, and their iniquities with
stripes.' God engages himself by promise and covenant, not only to
chide and check, but also to correct his people for their sins:
'Nevertheless, my loving-kindness will I not utterly take from him,
nor suffer my faithfulness to fail.' Afflictions are fruits of God's
faithfulness, to which the covenant binds him. God would be
unfaithful, if first or last, more or less, he did not afflict his people.
Afflictions are part of that gracious covenant which God hath made
with his people; afflictions are mercies, yea, covenant mercies, Ps.
119:75. Hence it is that God is called the terrible God, keeping
covenant and mercy, Neh. 1:5; because, by his covenant of mercy, he
is bound to afflict and chastise his people. God by covenant is bound
to preserve his people, and not to suffer them to perish; and happy
are they that are preserved, whether in salt and vinegar, or in wine
and sugar. All the afflictions that come upon a wicked man come
upon him by virtue of a covenant of works, and so are cursed unto
him; but all the afflictions that come upon a gracious man, they come
upon him by virtue of a covenant of grace, and so they are blessed
unto him; and therefore he hath eminent cause to hold his peace, to
lay his hand upon his mouth.
(8.) Eighthly, If you would be silent and quiet under afflictions, then
dwell much upon this, viz., That all your afflictions do but reach the
worser, the baser, and the ignobler part of a Christian, viz., his body,
his outward man: 'Though our outward man decay, yet our inward
man is renewed day by day,' 2 Cor. 4:16. As Aristarchus the heathen
said, when he was beaten by the tyrants: Beaton; it is not Aristarchus
you beat, it is only his shell. Timothy had a very healthful soul in a
crazy body, 1 Tim. 5:23; and Gaius had a very prosperous soul in a
weak distempered body, 3 Ep. of John 2. Epictetus and many of the
more refined heathens, have long since concluded that the body was
the organ or vessel, the soul was the man and merchandise. Now, all
the troubles and afflictions that a Christian meets with, they do not
reach his soul, they touch not his conscience, they make no breach
upon his noble part; and therefore he hath cause to hold his peace,
and to lay his hand upon his mouth. The soul is the breath of God,
Heb. 12:9, Zech. 12:1, the beauty of man, the wonder of angels, and
the envy of devils; it is a celestial plant, and of a divine offspring; it is
an immortal spirit. Souls are of an angelic nature; a man is an angel
clothed in clay; the soul is a greater miracle in man than all the
miracles wrought amongst men; the soul is a demi-semi-God
dwelling in a house of clay. Now it is not in the power of any outward
troubles and afflictions that a Christian meets with to reach his soul;
and therefore he may well sit mute under the smarting rod.
(9.) Ninthly, If thou wouldst be silent and quiet under the saddest
providences and sorest trials, then keep up faith in continual
exercise. Now faith, in the exercise of it, will quiet and silence the
soul, thus,
[1.] By bringing the soul to sit down satisfied in the naked
enjoyments of God, John 14:8, Ps. 17:15.
[2.] By drying up the springs of pride, self-love, impatience,
murmuring, unbelief, and the carnal delights of this world.
[3.] By presenting to the soul greater, sweeter, and better things in
Christ, than any this world doth afford, Heb. 11:3, Philip. 3:7, 8.
[4.] By lessening the soul's esteem of all outward vanities. Do but
keep up the exercise of faith, and thou wilt keep silent before the
Lord. No man so mute, as he whose faith is still busy about invisible
objects.
(10.) Tenthly, If you would keep silent, then keep humble before the
Lord. Oh! labour every day to be more humble and more low and
little in your own eyes. Who am I, saith the humble soul, but that
God should cross me in this mercy, and take away that mercy, and
pass a sentence of death upon every mercy? I am not worthy of the
least mercy, I deserve not a crumb of mercy, I have forfeited every
mercy, I have improved never a mercy. Only by pride comes
contention. It is only pride that puts men upon contending with God
and men; an humble soul will lie quiet at the foot of God, it will be
contented with bare commons, Prov. 13:16. As you see sheep can live
upon the bare commons, which a fat ox cannot. A dinner of green
herbs relisheth well with the humble man's palate, whereas a stalled
ox is but a coarse dish to a proud man's stomach. An humble heart
thinks none less than himself, nor none worse than himself; an
humble heart looks upon small mercies as great mercies, and great
afflictions as small afflictions, and small afflictions as no afflictions;
and therefore sits mute and quiet under all. Do but keep humble, and
you will keep silent before the Lord. Pride kicks, and flings, and frets,
but an humble man hath still his hand upon his mouth. Every thing
on this side hell is mercy, much mercy, rich mercy to an humble soul;
and therefore he holds his peace.
(11.) Eleventhly, If you would keep silence under the afflicting hand
of God, then keep close, hold fast these soul-silencing and soul-
quieting maxims or principles. As,
[1.] First, That the worst that God doth to his people in this world, is
in order to the making of them a heaven on earth. He brings them
into a wilderness, but it is, that he may speak comfortably to them,
Hosea 2:14; he casts them into the fiery furnace, but it is, that they
may have more of his company; do the stones come thick and
threefold about Stephen's ears, it is but to knock him the nearer to
Christ, the comer-stone, &c., Acts 7.
[2.] Secondly, If you would be silent, then hold fast this principle, viz.
That what God wills is best, Heb. 12:10. When he wills sickness,
sickness is better than health; when he wills weakness, weakness is
better than strength; when he wills want, want is better than wealth;
when he wills reproach, reproach is better than honour; when he
wills death, death is better than life. As God is wisdom itself, and so
knows that which is best, so he is goodness itself, and therefore
cannot do anything but that which is best: therefore hold thy peace.
[3.] Thirdly, If thou wouldst be silent under thy greatest afflictions,
then hold fast to this principle, viz. That the Lord will bear thee
company in all thy afflictions, Isa. 41:10; chap. 43:2; Ps. 23:4; Ps.
90:15; Dan. 3:25; Gen. 39:20, 21; 2 Tim. 4:16, 17. These scriptures
are breasts full of divine consolation, these wells of salvation are full;
will you turn to them and draw out, that your souls may be satisfied
and quieted?
[4.] Fourthly, If you would be silent under your afflictions, then hold
fast this principle, That the Lord hath more high, more noble, and
more blessed ends in the afflicting of you than he hath in the
afflicting of the men of the world. The stalk and the ear of corn fall
upon the threshing floor, under one and the same flail, but the one is
shattered in pieces, the other is preserved; from one and the same
olive, and from under one and the same press is crushed out both oil
and dregs; but the one is turned up for use, the other thrown out as
unserviceable; and by one and the same breath the fields are
perfumed with sweetness, and annoyed with unpleasant savours: so,
though afflictions do befall good and bad alike, as the Scripture
speaks, Eccles. 9:2, yet the Lord will effect more glorious ends by
those afflictions that befall his people, than he will effect by those
that befall wicked men; and therefore the Lord puts his people into
the furnace for their trial, but the wicked for their ruin: the one is
bettered by affliction, the other is made worse; the one is made soft
and tender by afflictions, the other is more hard and obdurate; the
one is drawn nearer to God by afflictions, the other is driven further
from God, &c.
[5.] Fifthly, If you would be silent under your afflictions, then you
must hold fast this principle, viz. That the best way in this world to
have thine own will, is to lie down in the will of God, and quietly to
resign up thyself to the good will and pleasure of God, Mat. 15:21, 29.
Luther was a man that could have anything of God, and why? Why!
because he submitted his will to the will of God; he lost his will in the
will of God. O soul! it shall be even as thou wilt, if thy will be
swallowed up in the will of God.
[6.] Sixthly and lastly, If thou wouldst be silent under the afflicting
hand of God, then thou must hold fast to this principle, viz. That God
will make times of afflictions to be times of special manifestations of
divine love and favour to thee. Tiburtius saw a paradise when he
walked upon hot burning coals. I could affirm this by a cloud of
witnesses, but that I am upon a close. Ah, Christians! as ever you
would be quiet and silent under the smarting rod, hold fast to these
principles; and keep them as your lives. But,
(12.) Twelfthly and lastly, To silence and quiet your soul under the
afflicting hand of God, dwell much upon the brevity or shortness of
man's life. This present life is not vita, sed via ad vitam, life, but a
motion, a journey towards life. Man's life, saith one, is the shadow of
smoke, yea, the dream of a shadow: saith another, man's life is so
short, that Austin doubted whether to call it a dying life or a living
death. Thou hast but a day to live, and perhaps thou mayest be now
in the twelfth hour of that day; therefore hold out faith and patience.
Thy troubles and thy life shall shortly end together; therefore hold
thy peace. Thy grave is going to be made; thy sun is near setting;
death begins to call thee off the stage of this world; death stands at
thy back; thou must shortly sail forth upon the ocean of eternity;
though thou hast a great deal of work to do, a God to honour, a
Christ to close with, a soul to save, a race to run, a crown to win, a
hell to escape, a pardon to beg, a heaven to make sure, yet thou hast
but a little time to do it in; thou hast one foot in the grave, thou art
even going ashore on eternity, and wilt thou now cry out of thy
affliction? Wilt thou now mutter and murmur when thou art entering
upon an unchangeable condition? What extreme folly and madness
is it for a man to mutter and murmur when he is just a-going out of
prison, and his bolts and chains are just a-knocking off! Why,
Christian, this is just thy case; therefore hold thy peace. Thy life is
but short, therefore thy troubles cannot be long; hold up and hold
out quietly and patiently a little longer, and heaven-shall make
amends for all, Rom. 8:18.
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The Mute Christian Under the Smarting Rod by Thomas Brooks,
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